Three weeks ago, the CBC ran a story about Turpel-Lafond, a renowned academic and former judge who for decades claimed Treaty Cree descent. A CBC investigation found that her claims did not match publicly available records. Since her publication, Turpel-Lafond has not disputed any of the facts described in the CBC investigation, nor has she offered any evidence that she is in fact Treaty Indian or of Cree descent. In a statement released Oct. 14, she said she believes her father was adopted by a Cree family in Norway House, Man. from her non-native grandparents. He also said that “I was never awarded a position based on affirmative action.” The Indigenous Women’s Collective, a group formed after the story was published, says Turpel Lafond’s illustrious career was “inextricably linked to and grounded in a story of Indigenous identity, marginalization and historical trauma, a story Ms Turpel-Lafond denies to verify”. In light of this, the group, made up of Indigenous women from a wide range of backgrounds, is calling on all Canadian universities that have awarded her honorary doctorates to revoke them. “Granting an honorary doctorate to a hypocrite [pretend Indian] promotes the colonial notion that a Caucasian person impersonating an Indigenous woman is a worthy and appropriate candidate,” the statement reads. “It also applauds the stolen valor of Indigenous women who fought for their achievements and became champions and voices for their people.” According to Turpel-Lafond’s biography and a search of publicly available records, she has been awarded honorary doctorates by 12 universities, including First Nations University of Canada, University of Regina, Mount Saint Vincent University, Thomson Rivers University, Brock University, Vancouver Island . University, Osgoode Hall School of Law at York University, McGill University, Simon Fraser University, University of St. Thomas, Royal Roads University and Carleton University. The CBC addresses these institutions for responses to the group’s request. Read here the statement of the Indigenous Women’s Association:
“There must be some sort of sanction”: Dick
Retired senator Lillian Dyck, who has also worked as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s neuropsychiatry research unit, said those universities face a stark choice. “It’s like when a student gets caught cheating. What do you do? There has to be some kind of sanction,” said Dyck, who is one of the women speaking on behalf of the collective. “And the way universities can sanction is to take away an honorary degree.” Dick acknowledged that such a move would be a “big step”. “Do they have the guts to do it? asked. Retired Sen. Lillian Dyck is among a group of Indigenous women asking universities to revoke honorary degrees awarded to Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (Courtney Markewich/CBC) Dyck said she understands the fear that can arise when acting against such a prominent figure and feels it herself, even though she is a retired senator who was recently awarded the Order of Canada. “It’s a bit scary to question someone like that in public because you’re afraid of what’s going to happen to you, because people are going to say, ‘What’s wrong with you Lillian? Why can’t you just let it go?’ He has done such incredibly good things.” Dyck said she can’t let this go because it seems like Turpel-Lafond has built a career pretending to be something she’s not. “She herself is not prepared to show any evidence that she is indeed aboriginal, and I think the balance of probabilities definitely points to her not being aboriginal – she is [of] European ancestry,” Dyck said. “What he did wasn’t right… He didn’t behave honorably. So should he have this honorary degree? No.” Dyck said those universities have some soul-searching to do as they consider their responses because the rest of the country will be watching. He said universities “are seen as bastions of high academic standards and ethics and integrity and fairness and justice and so on.” But, he said, if they do nothing, “it makes this honorary degree look less than it should.”
